Japanese word for "and" when using several nouns to describe someone?
 

Hello!

I have been studying japanese for a while now, but I realize that I don't know the word for "and", that you use when you are trying to connect nouns that describe the same thing/person. Do I still use "to"? How do you for example "I'm a student and a teacher"? Do you say "Watashi wa gakusei to sensei desu"?

Thank you!

If you are linking nouns, you always use と for a complete list, no matter the function of the nouns in the sentence.

Is it not で in this case?
Because it is not simply just a list of nouns, it is describing what the person is.
(Maybe I made that up, but I thought it was で in this case)

For example from alc:
“is a and”の検索結果（6380 件）：英辞郎 on the Web：スペースアルク

Ben Gates is a historian and adventurer.
ベン・ゲイツは歴史学者で冒険家です。

Those で are て form of だ(です/である).

学生で、先生です。
がくせいで、せんせいです。

I think thats what you meant. But it sounds a bit strange. I would use と.
And you can't use で for example for :

猫と犬がいる。
ねこといぬがいる。

Because you want to say that there are(exist) cats and dogs, not it is a cat and a dog.

I know.
This is one of the reasons I brought it up.

Again, another reason I brought it up, and why I said "In this case".
Of course we can't use で in your example, because it is a fundamentally different sentence.
But we want to describe what the person is (Going back to the で being a て form of だ reason.)

For these reasons I also provided the example from ALC.
Of course I could be wrong, but I felt it important to bring up.

Incorrect. I'm surprised you said this.
____________

Correct.

I probably didn't state it artfully. I think in my original draft of that post, I'd said something about も, but I guess I deleted it.

Is that what made what I said wrong?

I'd originally written something using examples of
アとビは
アとビを
アとビに
アとビが
etc.

but then deleted it.

In any case, I'd be interested to know what would have been a better answer!

To say something like "Ms. Smith is a pilot, a wife and a mother of two.", which is clearly what the OP is asking about, you don't use と even once.

That would be:
「スミスさんはパイロットであり、妻であり、ふたりのこどもの母親でもある。」　or

「スミスさんはパイロットで、妻で、ふたりのこどもの母親でもある。」

Of course Sashimister and yuriyuri are correct. I don't know what I was thinking. Even when I spoke aloud to myself, what they said came out.

Looks like I went off on a wild tangent. (Again!)

Don't beat yourself up, Kyle.